by D. C. Gomez
“Oh that,” she said, waving me off. “Not in these parts. Also, by now, everyone should know you are Sir Bertrant’s page. Even as a drunk, the people fear him. He is lethal.” She leaned on the table.
“I will remember that,” I told Sageri as I grabbed the basket and supplies. “Thank you for everything.”
“My pleasure Madison.” Sageri gave me a hug. It was the first time in months someone had given me a hug, and it almost made me cry.
“Okay, thank you,” I blurted out, trying to keep the tears inside. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Do you think you will have time?” Sageri asked.
“I’m pretty sure Sir Bertrant won’t keep me that busy,” I replied.
“In that case, I will be expecting you for deliveries,” Sageri told me as she escorted me to the door.
I waved at Sageri and headed back to Sir Bertrant’s cottage. The food smelled amazing and I was ready to start eating. I would finally have a great night sleep. My new mission now was figuring out how to blend in for the next month.
“Madison, wake up,” a soft voice whispered in my ear.
Was I dreaming?
“Madison, wake up!” Louder this time.
My eyelids flew open when I recognized the voice. “Thunder, where are you?” Sitting up, I looked around, and sure enough I was still lying in the page’s room Sir Bertrant issued me. The room was bigger than Sageri’s supply closet.
As I checked the room again, I couldn’t help but compare this room to the one I had in New York. This room was a lot bigger. It had a full-sized bed against a wall, a dresser with a chair, and even a washing table with a basin and a pitcher. Based on the condition of the room when I walked in last night, none of Sir Bertrant’s other pages had stayed here in years. Dust and mothballs had covered every surface. It took me at least an hour to clean the place up.
“Madison, it’s food time,” Thunder said inside my head.
My life was a lot calmer before Thunder could communicate with me. A quick glance out the window told me it was still dark outside. This had become a horrible habit. I had two choices: try to ignore Thunder and head back to sleep or give in and feed the horses. I had a horrible feeling he was not going to stop calling my name until I did the latter, so option two won.
I didn’t waste too much time getting ready. Feeding horses would lead to cleaning the stables and probably the garden. My morning washing was going to become an afternoon one at this rate. I made the bed and tidied up the room. I blamed it on my grandmother. She’d always been adamant that those things happened before I left my room each morning, so doing it was kind of my way to make her proud.
Standing back after I’d finished, I smiled. The room was immaculate, and with nothing left to do in there, I couldn’t delay the inevitable anymore. I headed towards the stables with a spring in my step and a growling stomach.
It was way too early for breakfast.
Did these horses ever sleep? Thunder and Lightning were running around the pasture. Thunder galloped in my direction, wearing a saddle.
“Where have you been?” I asked.
“Your crazy knight wanted to take a trip down to the other town in the middle of the night,” Thunder replied, stomping his front hoof.
“Did you bring him back?” I asked.
“Barely. That old fool kept falling off. I needed Lighting’s help to get him off me and inside the house. I’m hungry now.”
“That is understandable. Let’s take this off first.” I started unbuckling the saddle on Thunder. “You are going to need a shower today. You are soaked.”
“What is a shower?” Thunder asked, pulling away from me.
“Relax now.” I pulled in the opposite direction. “A shower is just a quick rinse to wash the sweat off you.”
“Why didn’t you say that?” Thunder asked and stopped fighting.
“This world is giving me a headache,” I told Thunder, scratching his ear. “Follow me.”
I carried the saddle with both hands to the stable. It weighed at least thirty pounds, making me wonder how that drunk managed to put the saddle on Thunder. Maybe he wasn’t completely drunk when he started his night.
“Lightning, are you hungry? I’m setting up your food, so come in when you get hungry,” I told the other horse, who was still prancing around the pasture.
Unlike Thunder, Lighting refused to communicate with me. I was not planning to beg him.
The stable was a mess when I came in. The riding crops were scattered everywhere, and saddles had been thrown around in various piles.
“What happened here?” I asked.
“Your knight didn’t like your new set up,” Thunder told me as he moved to his stall. “He couldn’t find his favorite toys.”
“Why didn’t he tell me yesterday when I was organizing things?” I asked, my hands curling into fists at my sides. It made me mad enough that I almost headed in the house to give that spoiled knight a piece of my mind.
“He didn’t think you would stick around,” Thunder told me. “Can I get food now?”
“What?” I turned and Thunder had his head pointing to the stall with the hay pile.
“Madison, you are easily distracted. Feed me first and then go off to cleaning again,” Thunder ordered.
Screaming was a waste of my time and Thunder was right. If I started organizing this mess, I would never get to his food. Dropping the saddle on top of the other ones, I focused on feeding Thunder. At least hurricane Bertrant hadn’t touched the hay room. Speaking of hay, the pile had shrunk. I needed more but had no clue where to buy it.
Thunder stomped his hoof a few times, reminding me to hurry, so I did, feeding him first. Lightning was second, and the stubborn horse didn’t come until he was good and ready. The males in this place were all nuts, horses and human alike.
I swept the stall out and reorganized the saddles. Thunder explained which ones needed to be closer to the door and the order things needed to be arranged. The horse made for a great supervisor. He had me relocate all things that didn’t belong in the stable outside, and finally, when we’d finished organizing the stable—for the third time—Lightning came in.
“Thanks Madison,” said Lightning, his voice like violins playing in my head.
After hearing both horses in my mind, I noticed a huge difference. Thunder sounded like leaves blowing in the wind. While Lightning’s voice was like a soft melody of strings. For such huge and powerful animals, their voices were delicate and full of gentleness.
“My pleasure,” I told the horse, watching him eat.
“Show off,” Thunder told him.
Lightning replied by flinging hay in Thunder’s face.
“Hey, cut it out you two!” I yelled before Thunder retaliated. “I’m the one cleaning here.”
“Fine.” Thunder stuck his tongue out at Lightning.
I rubbed my eyes just to make sure I wasn’t imagining all this. God help me.
“Okay you two, I need to make breakfast,” I told the horses, and they both stopped to glare at me. “I’ll be back when I’m done.”
“Good luck,” Lightning told me.
“What does that mean?” I asked as I put the broom away.
“Bertrant is not a morning person,” said Lightning.
“If you two are waking him up before the sun, I could understand his displeasure.” I had doubted that anyone enjoyed waking up at this hour.
“You will see,” Thunder added.
I gave both horses one last look before jogging back to the house. After that workout, I was full of energy, but also starving. There were no lights on in the house when I went in. I opened all the windows to let the sunshine add some light. The house was homey, just neglected. Kind of like everything around here. If you were facing the house, a small kitchen area would be on the right-hand side. To the far left was Sir Bertrant’s room and a library. I hadn’t been inside the library yet, but I was hoping to be able to soon. The middle of the house served a
s the dining room and living space. Sir Bertrant had a giant fireplace that doubled as the stove. Everything in this place served multiple functions.
The kitchen was made up of a small table to prepare food, a pantry, and cabinets full of dishes, pots, and pans. It even had a cabinet that could pass for an old-school icebox. I had never seen a working one before. I also had no clue where in this kingdom anyone would find ice. Maybe Sageri had a spell she could use to make it work.
The vendors did not disappoint, and my supplies made it to the house before I did last night. The kitchen was littered with food items. Sageri had recommended I purchase a grain that I could make for breakfast. Based on her description, it sounded like Cream of Wheat. It would do. I didn’t have any more time to waste analyzing breakfast options. I had to get busy organizing the kitchen, so I did.
The grain concoction tasted nasty, so I threw it out the window. I dumped the pot in the back-sink area for cleaning later. We had ordered eggs, so I decided those were safe and simple. I made scrambled eggs with bread and fresh fruit. Sageri had given me cream that tasted like butter, and it was delicious on the bread. I knew it was too early to start thinking of lunch but planning ahead made my life simple. I would make a stew, and it would take hours cooking in the fireplace, which meant I needed to start cutting and peeling vegetables now. Welcome to my new life here in Somnium.
It was mid-morning by the time I finished the house chores. I was starting to pray the witch came back soon. My fingers were pruned from scrubbing the floors and pots. This was more manual labor than I’d done in months. Last time I did this much work, I’d still been living with my grandmother. I had no time to get sad today, though, so I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. I needed to plant those seeds.
Finding the pouch with the seeds and grabbing Sageri’s potion, I headed outside. It was time to do some planting.
Thunder and Lightning were out of the stable, watching me as I stepped into the back yard. I had no clue how tall these trees would get, so I didn’t want them too close to the house. I also didn’t want to walk a mile just for fruit. Looking around the back pasture, I decided on a spot on the right-hand side of the house, away from the stables. The back of the house did not have a single tree, so adding some shade in that area would be nice.
Twenty feet away from the house seemed about perfect. In the stables, I found a weird shovel, or at least I hoped it was a shovel. I looked around to make sure Sir Bertrant was not around and I set out to plant my trees. I placed twenty trees in two rows of ten each in an L shape. Thunder and Lightning gave up spying on me from afar and made their way over on my last hole.
“Do you know what you are doing?” Lightning asked, inspecting the holes.
“Not a clue,” I admitted.
“You do know trees take years to grow, at least in this world,” Thunder added.
“They take years in my world as well,” I told the smarty pants horse.
“I suppose you are not in any hurry then,” Lightning told me.
“Sageri gave me this potion to speed up the growth,” I told the horses.
At those words, they each took a few steps away from me.
“Oh come on, how bad could this be? It’s only going to speed up the process by a bit.” At least that was my hope. Otherwise, I might end up killing all these seeds and it would all be a waste.
“Sure,” Thunder told me.
“I shouldn’t do it?” I asked him, my eyes burning holes into the potion.
“You committed to this plan, so it’s time to make it happen,” Thunder replied.
“We will just wait over here,” Lightning added, and he slinked away a few more steps. Thunder followed him, too.
“Chickens,” I told them and started pouring potions on my seeds.
Sageri had said to use only a few drops, but it was hard to guess with this bottle. Why didn’t she give me a droplet to use? I estimated and gave each seed about five to seven drops, then I walked over to the horses. How long would it take the drops to reach the seeds?
“Now what?” Lightning asked.
“No clue.” I shrugged. “Sageri never told me how long this part would take.”
The three of us were staring at my little mounds of dirt when the earth shook, the entire ground vibrating under my feet.
“Earthquake!” I screamed. “We are going to die!”
Thunder backed away from the mounds, while Lightning bit my shirt and hauled me away from the scene of the planting. The earth just kept rumbling and shaking, and my heart raced as another scream stuck in my throat, but before I could get it out, my mouth fell open as I stared at the trees shooting from the earth. Not little limbs or small little trees, either. These were fully bloomed trees, probably at least twenty feet tall.
“Was that supposed to happen?” Lightning asked.
“Oops,” I told the horses.
“That answers that question,” said Thunder.
We were eyeing the new tree lines, completely speechless, when Sir Bertrant ran out of the door in his undergarments, his sword raised in the air.
“Prepare to die!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.
“I think he is talking to you.” Thunder pushed me in front of him with his head.
“Thanks for the moral support,” I told the horse, who was hiding behind me.
“Nice job Madison,” Lightning said, backing away.
“Where are they?” Sir Bertrant asked as he walked around in circles.
“Who are you looking for?” I asked, not getting closer to him.
“The Army that is charging at us,” Sir Bertrant said, still holding his sword straight. For a drunk, he could hold that weapon steady.
“Ohh that,” I said, my eyes on the ground instead of the monstrous trees I’d just grown.
“Where are they?” Sir Bertrant asked again.
“Right in front of you,” Thunder told him.
“What?” Sir Bertrant asked, his eyes squinting towards us.
“Yes, you are being attacked by the fruit tree militia,” Thunder added.
“Hehehe,” Lightning snickered.
“Fruit trees?” Sir Bertrant repeated as he slowly, reluctantly, turned to face the new mammoth-sized trees.
Sir Bertrant dropped his sword and it fell to the ground with a thud. “Holy Goddesses, where did those things come from?”
“Curtesy of Dryad Madison over here,” Thunder said and joined his brother in laughter. The two horses galloped away, leaving me alone to face the confused and angry knight.
“How? Never mind that. Why?” Sir Bertrant made his way to the tree line, analyzing each one.
“I wanted fruit for the horses and us, and figured this was easier than buying it,” I told him, digging my hands deep in my pockets.
“A quiet life, is that too much to ask for?” Sir Bertrant asked. Shaking his head, and without another word, he left me standing in the pasture, ogling my new trees.
“Oh boy. You guys are big,” I said to the trees and slowly walked in their directions.
“On the bright side, we have plenty of fruit. Give them a try, Madison. Check to see if they are good,” Thunder told me from the other end of the tree line.
“Why me?” I asked him.
“They are your trees,” Lightning added from the other side. “It’s only fair if you try them first.”
“Fine,” I told them.
It had been years since I’d climbed a tree, but I couldn’t back down in front of those two. It took me a little while to get my footing right, but eventually, I did. I made it to the first set of branches without killing myself. The tree I sat on appeared like an apple tree, if apples were purple. I plucked one from the closest branch and examined the strange fruit.
“You have to chew it,” Lightning told me, looking up at me.
“Fine, but if I die, call Sageri,” I told him.
“I don’t think she can bring back the dead, but we will tell her.”
Leave it to
Thunder to be no help.
“Absolutely no support from you two,” I told the horses.
“Just hurry,” Thunder told me, kicking the tree with his hoof.
“Here it goes,” I said, more to myself than the horses.
The first bite was an explosion of flavor. The fruit was the sweetest thing I had ever tasted. It tasted like a cross between an apple and a peach, if that was possible. I took another bite and juice ran down both sides of my chin.
“This is amazing!” I yelled down at the horses.
“Great, now share,” Thunder said, stomping around in his excitement.
“Yes, Sir,” I told Thunder, giving him a salute.
I picked a few of the fruits from the branch I’d climbed to and threw them at the horses. Then I made my way down before running to the next one. I wanted to try them all. These trees were amazing, and I couldn’t wait to taste what other surprises they had in store for me.
That afternoon I dropped off a basket of fruit to Sageri. She couldn’t stop laughing when I explained to her what I did and the reaction from Sir Bertrant. After calming herself down, she explained the seeds only needed two drops of the potion. The goal was to get them started, not to speed the process by fifteen years. She was definitely proud of herself that the potion had worked so well, but she made me promise not to use it that way again. According to Sageri, magic had a price and sometimes nature did not appreciate humans changing her natural rhythm.
That was fine with me, and we didn’t need any more trees at the house now. The good news was Sageri always had so many deliveries, which meant the fruit would never be wasted. We had a consistent clientele that we could give fresh fruits to. She had prepared a light meal for everyone, so we were on our way as soon as I arrived at the house. Deliveries were faster, and we had less talkative people than the previous nights.
The last house we delivered to was my favorite. The family had a couple of small children who loved Sageri. They gave her hugs every time she came by. This evening, they also gave me a huge hug and thanked me for all the fruits.
“Madison, where is your sword?” one of the small girls asked me.